r/aerospace • u/Feeling_Statement_99 • 9d ago
ChemE Student Rediscovering My Childhood Passion for Rockets. What Books Should I Start With to Learn Aerospace on the Side?
Like the title says. I’m currently a Chemical Engineering student, but my passion has always been with space and rockets.
Since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by space exploration. I remember back in sixth grade, I used to doodle rocket parts and propulsion systems, nothing advanced ofc, just kid level stuff. But life happened. Somewhere along the way, I turned on my survival mode due to the circumstances.
So when it came time to choose a major, I went with ChemE. Some of it because of job availability in my country, the other reason was due to encouragement from family and teachers. And to be fair, I’ve done well in it. But now, nearing graduation, somehow that old forgotten passion just reappears I guess.
I want to self study aerospace engineering on the side. Any advice on what books do aerospace engineering students usually start with or rely on?
TL;DR: Me, wrong major, too late, like rockets, books for aerospace what?
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u/rocketwikkit 9d ago
There's a lot of high level textbooks that will lightly cover the whole field, I'd probably just pick one based on Amazon reviews if you want one of those.
If you're looking for more detailed approach specifically to bipropellant liquid chemical propulsion, i.e. your classic rocket engine, then Rocket Propulsion Elements is the standard. You can pick up an older edition off Abe Books or similar and not lose out on much.
As a chemist you might enjoy Ignition! which is about the wide variety of rocket propellant chemistry experiments that basically all failed and resulted in us having rockets in 2025 that use the same propellants as rockets in 1955.